Dumb and Dumber
This week’s government shutdown makes both sides of politics look dreadful. A poll this week had Congress less popular than head lice and root-canal surgery. But, channeling Rahm Emmanuel, (“never let a serious crisis go to waste”), here are a few negotiating lessons to take from Washington’s latest home-cooked fiasco:
1. Open realistically, move modestly.
Last weekend, the Republican-controlled House proposed legislation that made the ongoing funding of government subject to a defunding of “Obama Care”, piled on top of a grab-bag of GOP wish-list items including the approval of the Keystone pipeline, a commitment to future business-friendly tax reform, repealing a tax on medical devices and more.
Rather than forming the starting point for a negotiation, it was dead on arrival–the Democratic Senate immediately rejected the bill outright. The House Republicans have subsequently had to back-pedal and drop their list of demands back to a 12-month delay in the new health plan, with more unilateral concessions likely in the days ahead as the pressure builds.
Lesson:
Unrealistic proposals encourage the other side to refuse to even enter negotiations, and can cost you credibility when future movements in your position need to be drastic and unilateral. Over time, they become self-defeating, as the other side recognizes that your opening proposals are always “padded.”
More progress is likely with optimistic, defendable proposals, which allow any future movement to be modest and able to be traded for other variables.
2. Don’t put things out of bounds unless you really mean it.
Both sides have been guilty of claiming too many “non-negotiable,” adopting an all-or-nothing approach. The result so far: they’ve got nothing.
Democrats have said they’ll only approve a spending bill if it’s free of any policy prescriptions (“a clean resolution”). That’s unnecessarily infle